Bacterial genome reduction using the progressive clustering of deletions via yeast sexual cycling. synthetic Mycoplasma mycoides JCVI-syn1.0

Biological processes are easier to understand when the underlying genome is smaller. Here we describe a method for reducing bacterial genomes by identifying individually deletable regions using transposon mutagenesis and progressively clustering deleted genomic segments using meiotic recombination between bacterial genomes harbored in yeast. Mycoplasmal genomes subjected to this process and transplanted into recipient cells yielded viable organisms simultaneously lacking 91 singly-deletable genes representing ~10% of the original genome